In 1852 Hannah Rebecca Crowell married sea captain William Burgess and set sail; within three years, she had crossed the equator eleven times and learned to navigate a vessel. Upon her husband's untimely death, the young widow returned to her family's home in Sandwich, Massachusetts, where she refused all marriage proposals and died wealthy in 1917. Through careful analysis of Hannah's journal—excerpts of which appear in this book—Megan Taylor Shockley examines how Burgess defied Victorian stereotypes and constructed her own legend, which the town of Sandwich embraced as its own.